Another little 10 mile tandem trip, we did the monthly pay some bills thing. Because the power company and the water works are downtown we decided to eat some breakfast there too. Lucky for us our favorite breakfast place is downtown too. Mmmmm, Raspberry Sour Cream Muffin. Donna snagged a bagel for today and we picked up an extra pair of Yankee Doughnuts for Sunday’s breakfast.
I’m getting bored.
Time to change the look of the blog maybe? Probably not, as I do like the look and the scheme goes well with the car color…that’s it, I just need a change of the header image. Wait, I know, I need to run another photo contest.
Last year I did one called “My Favorite Miata Picture” Contest and got 44 entries. I think I want to call it a “Capitol Idea” Photo Contest. A picture of a Miata with a capitol in the background. I can’t seem to find it, but the inspiration for for this is a photo I’ve seen a couple of times on the Miata.net Forums (and I can’t seem to find right now) of a 10AE in a parking garage at night with a lit up dome in the background. Found it! Now I realize that limits the backgrounds to 51 (states & DC), so maybe I’ll let them use any sort of domed building, county courthouses, churches, etc. Heck, how about any business with capitol or capital in the name.
I used to think it was the lack of entertaining shows on TV that kept me from watching, but I now realize that it has to be me. Because we have added the digital package to our regular cable, so we can watch le Tour, I now have at my disposal probably twice the usual 60 channels. Including 16 Starz/Encore movie channels (none of whom were showing “The Incredibles”), 10 different channels devoted to religion, a dozen flavors of music video channels (a couple of which are religious themed, even one called, no lie, JCTV), a half dozen flavors of ESPN, BBC America, etc., but there was nothing to watch. The closest thing to holding my interest was an Everybody Loves Raymond repeat on TBS. So here I am listening to RadioParadise and surfing the web looking for entertainment.
Ceremonial start.
Early attack by lower GC riders.
Breakaway gains huge time on peloton.
Non breakaway’s teams come to the front.
The breakaway is caught in the final kilometers.
Mass sprint finish.
Except for the two time trials, that is pretty much how the first half of this year’s Tour de France has gone, but tomorrow we separate the mere men from the supermen as the ride enters the Pyrenees. Who will emerge as the tour leader? Hard to say with all the big guns silenced,
Lance Armstrong – retired
Jan Ullrich – suspended for doping connections
Ivan Basso – suspended for doping connections
Alejandro Valverde- crashed, broken collar bone
Alexandre Vinokourov – team suspended for doping
Bobby Julich – crashed, broken wrist
Maybe it will one-hip Flyod Landis?
Donna and I went for a dusk ride on the tandem this evening. A little less than 10 miles, but we averaged 14-1/2 MPH, which is a few more MPH’s than we’ve been doing and coincidentally, about half the average speed of the peloton in today’s 105 mile stage from Bordeaux to Dax.
Since last Thursday a 1/2 scale version of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial has been set up in a park not to far from our house. The Wall That Heals travels around the country allowing folks who can’t or won’t make the trip to the actual memorial in Washington DC. Donna and I visited the actual Wall way back in the early 80’s when it had not been open for very long, so we thought it might be cool to see this version too. Because the traveling wall, like the original, is open 24 hours a day, we decided to wait until 10PM or so last night to visit, so we could take advantage of the cool night air. Plus there is something about the memorial that makes a visit in darkness more fitting.
I know, there are actually over 58,000 names engraved on the Wall, but 43,000 works better for me here because that is the amount of miles the Emperor has traveled in it’s lifetime. Passed through that mark on the way home from Augusta this morning.
We went over to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie at an early morning showing in a theater with stadium seating. I enjoyed it more than Donna did, but we still felt it was worth the time, money and effort to see it in an actual movie theater instead of waiting for the DVD. Not as much humor and not nearly as many quotable lines. There was a lot more action, some of it bordering on the unbelievable. I say bordering, because after all, if you can except that Davy Jones has the head of an octopus, one hand that is a lobster claw and his still beating heart is locked in a buried chest miles away on a dessert isle, how can three men carrying out a raging sword fight on a 25′ water wheel as it rolls down a hill be unbelievable?
We went for another tandem ride this morning. We did the old Aiken Bicycle Club pre-meeting loop of out Rushton and back in Wright’s Mill, a nice 12 miler of smooth roads, little traffic and a nice variety of elevation changes.
The FRS were on TV last night on ESPN and this afternoon on FOX, so I’ve been glued to the TV so far this weekend. The announcers on ESPN are less annoying than the yutzes on FOX, but in both cases I would rather listen to the Red Sox radio guys call the game. The only problem is I can’t do it, the radio broadcast on MLB.com is about a pitch and a half behind the TV. I don’t know what the reason for the delay, it is not like it is the MTV Music Awards or the Super Bowl halftime show…
Part of today’s non play by play chat has concerned the fact that the American League’s top vote getter will not be appearing in the All Star game this coming Tuesday. Boston’s Manny Ramirez has begged off because of a right knee soreness. Tim McCarver felt that maybe even if he wasn’t going to play, he should at least make an appearance at the game. But Manny is going home to spend three days resting, this being attributed to “Many Being Manny.” This phrase is used quite often to explain his erratic or odd behavior both on and off the field. Because he is such a great hitter he gets cut a lot of slack. I thought, cool saying, it’d make a nice T-shirt, maybe I would add it to my CafePress shop, but somebody had beat me to it.
Well I paraphrased a Lance Armstrong T-shirt for myself by substituting Brian for Lance, why not do it for Manny? Look for a Brian Being Brian T-shirt on CafePress soon.
As far back as I can remember Donna and I have been getting our hair cut every 4 weeks. At the last one each year we sit down with the stylist’s appointment book and mapped out our haircut schedule for the coming year.
The other day I asked Donna was it time for our haircut soon as I thought that mine was getting a little shaggy. She looked in her little calendar and said, “Nope, we aren’t due until July 25th.” “Wow, that is nearly three weeks way,” I said, “my hair is getting long enough that I might have to start carrying that comb again.” That’s when she looked backwards and realized we were supposed to go on June 27th. We had missed an appointment. That was 4 days after chemo #4, so she wasn’t exactly paying attention to those mundane details. Besides, it is not like she noticed needing a haircut, she balder than a new born.
Although, Donna’s head has been itching something fierce and we could swear that some places that were smooth a week ago, so maybe the hair is starting to make a comeback.